 It's gonna be a house. Well, it's weird. Oh yeah. Apparently, I'm lucky that somebody was with me. Hey, you didn't even kill somebody, did you? Because nobody thinks that that little stuff off. Right. No, we're just... We just run this and that. Because I've been getting worse than I know you. It's already spinning. Okay, I think we'll go ahead and get started with our orientation here. Is it an orientation? We'll call it an orientation, right? Good information for you. My name is Ernesto Olivares. I'm the current mayor of the city of Santa Rosa. And I do want to welcome those members of the public who have come out to learn more about what our board and commissions do here for the city. What we're gonna do is... And just to let you know, we are recording today's session so that those who could not be here in person can access this on our city website. So that'll be available for them. So what I'm gonna do today is I'm gonna ask each of our current board chairs who are here or their representatives after I speak to just give you a very quick maybe one minute introduction about who they are and maybe a little bit of their experience on that certain board and commission. And then followed by that, we have staff here that is part of the staff for those boards and commissions that are gonna give you a little bit more information, maybe a two to three minute snapshot of the duties and responsibilities of those various boards and commissions, any special skills that they're looking for, anything else that they may wish to share. And if you have an agenda, I think on the agenda shows that we're gonna be having questions and answers at the end. I think it'll be easier that as we go through, as staff presents, if you have a question about that specific board or commission, I think it'll be easier for you to go ahead and ask that question during that time. So we'll make sure that we'll allow time during that process for your questions to make sure they're answered. But again, I do wanna thank you for your interest in public service and for volunteering your time for our community. It's very important. I think you will find it rewarding if you do choose to move on and apply for a board and commission. So thank you for stepping forward and being part of a process that is wonderful to be a part of. So with that, I will begin by calling out some of our board and commission representatives to give you a very quick snapshot of their experience. So we'll begin with our Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board. And Beth, you can come here and we also have two microphones up at the top and we should be able to record from either of them, correct? Thank you. So my name is Beth Dadko and I am the current chair of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board and basically, you know, my experience has been wonderful. We have a really wonderful public work staff and we provide a lot of input for the public work staff and comment on different projects and plans for our public works plan and also comment on different grant applications and things like that. We... Yeah, it's been a really great experience and I encourage anybody who's interested in Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety, especially in light. We have, you know, had some recent... lots of recent fatalities and injuries and crosswalks and I'm sure you're all aware so we're discussing that as well and always trying to make the city a safer place for bike and pedestrians. Thanks. Thank you. How's our volume? Can we hear? We're okay. I don't... Not everybody has the advantage of being as close to the microphone as I am, so if you need to, you can use the handheld mic as well. So next, we'll ask our Board of Community Services. Stan Gow and I'm Representative of the Board of Community Services. The chair was unable to be here. We oversee the parks in the community and the buildings like Findlay Center, Senior Center, Set Policy for Park. I advise the council on any improvements or any actions that need to be taken with the parks and rec department and that's pretty much it. Thank you. Thank you very much. I don't see Dick here. He was going to try to make it here. So we will wait on the Board of Public Utilities to let staff give you more details on that. Community Advisory Board, Tanya. Good afternoon. My name's Tanya Narath and I'm the chair of the Community Advisory Board and like Beth, my experience on the board has been very positive. It's a great board to serve on if you're interested in learning more about the issues and opportunities that residents are experiencing in the city. We manage a grant program that funds community improvement grants and so we get an opportunity once a year to hear from neighborhoods and residents who have ideas for really neat projects to bring their neighborhoods together. We've supported grants for neighborhood gardens, benches, mural projects, you name it. So that's been a highlight of our year and we are looking for new members of our board who are interested in getting more involved in the community. We're a very active board in terms of being out in the community, meeting with neighborhoods, going to community meetings. So it's not just a once a month commitment for a board meeting. We are really looking for people who want to be out and about in the community and I would highly recommend it to anyone. It's been a great experience. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have a Board of Building Regulations Appeals. I'm Bill Dodson and I'm the current chair of that board, which meets twice a year. We meet in January and July at a regular meeting to discuss any issues that may be forthcoming. But we serve as an on-call basis when any property owner files an appeal to the building department against one of their rulings. We will listen to all presentations on the matter and meet and make a decision to whether we support or appeal the board, appeal, support or disapprove the appeal. It's not very heavy lifting, but it's a very important role to have and I'm particularly looking to replace myself as I've been on it for six years and I will be leaving. I encourage you people to apply. Thank you. Thank you, Bill. Dan Flock with Cultural Heritage Board. Hello, I'm Daniel Flock. I'm the chair of the Cultural Heritage Board for the City of Santa Rosa and we're a seven-member board who have interest or expertise in historic preservation and in historic preservation issues. We review residential projects in historic districts and we on occasion work with Design Review Board and Planning Commission to review commercial projects where they occur within a historic district or a historic commercial district in Santa Rosa. It's a great board. We get along really well and it's been a good experience to see consensus-builded with that board over time and so if you are a person who likes to roll up your sleeves and you like historic preservation and old buildings and hearing that so that no other board has to deal with that level of detail because it is kind of a niche piece in Santa Rosa's governmental structure then this is the board for you. So please apply. Well done, thank you. Patty, Planning Commission. Microphone works for my size too. Patty Sisko, Planning Commission, current chair. I have been on the Planning Commission for 11 years so I think it goes without saying that I think it's a wonderful board and a wonderful opportunity for anybody who is interested in how the city gets put together. We work with the general plan, the zoning code, design guidelines, historic preservation guidelines, receive input from Cultural Heritage Board, Design Review, Parks and Rec to review development projects in the city. It's a very passionate job that some of the meetings are very fiery and it's very, very exciting and it's a wonderful opportunity to work with an incredible community development staff. We have, I think, just the best planners in the city so they're all great and I would encourage anybody who is interested to apply. Thank you. Anybody here from Design Review Board? We'll wait for staff to give that information. Waterways Advisory Committee, Steve. Hi everyone, I'm Steve Verbinovich. I chair the city's Waterways Advisory Committee. The committee basically started in the mid-1990s when we were involved with the Santa Rosa Creek master plan and later developed the Prince Memorial Greenway from that master plan and since then the city has done a city-wide creek master plan which covers all the creeks in the city and so we're in the business of trying to help implement that plan and some of the things we get involved with are reviewing development proposals along creeks because we want to make sure that where an area is designated for preservation we keep the vegetation there and keep the environment as it is but where it's designated as a path whether it's a pedestrian path or a bike path those pathways get developed and we've been very successful at developing bikeways along our creeks. The other thing we do is to do creek restoration projects with the help of course of the city's great staff and so as I mentioned the Prince Memorial Greenway came about that way we're trying to extend that over further towards the West End neighborhood we're now involved with Colgan Creek and we have a very exciting plan down by LC Allen that will be built in 2014 which will include a park and trails in that area so we're looking for grants we're looking for projects to work on and the city's been very successful at getting those grants 11 million in the last five years amazingly enough and we're looking for people who want to help create a better environment for our community I think it's very rewarding to see these projects actually happen so thanks to the staff members who helped there and hope you consider applying. Thank you and Namilio we're ready for the housing authority. Hi I'm Namilio Gonzalez I'm the chairman of the housing authority and I've been on that board for a little over three years now and the housing authority operates the section 8 housing voucher program in the city of Santa Rosa that's the biggest part of our budget today and it also has a housing trust fund that is used by developers for building affordable housing we make loans like a bank makes loans you know to people that are building affordable housing right now our board is at full complement you know but we have two positions on our board that are reserved for tenant commissioners I am one of those who doesn't be living in subsidized housing in section 8 housing and be registered in the city of Santa Rosa and that's about it if you have any questions about the housing authority just see me after this meeting thanks. Thank you Namilio and Bobby measure oversight. Good afternoon everybody I'm Bobby Beeler I'm the chair of the measure oversight commission I'm pleased to see all of you it's a fabulous thing and it takes all of us to create a wonderful city here measure O is a tax measure that was passed back in 2005 it allocates a quarter cent to measure O which essentially is police fire and gang prevention and it is meant to supplement the city council budget and enhance police fire and gang prevention the committee is responsible for ensuring that those funds are spent appropriately and that they are allocated to each of those divisions appropriately it's very interesting and I really love to see the work that police fire and parks and rec are able to do with that money the tax measure essentially raises about 7 million dollars a year that gets allocated to those different departments and it's really inspiring to me to see what they are able to do with that money to enhance and improve our community so I definitely encourage you all to get involved we are going to have openings on this this year including me this will be the first time in ten years I will not be on a border commission for the city of Santa Rosa we will come down and apply for measure O it's really a fabulous group thank you I think we should have somebody here from personnel board good afternoon my name is Alex Maloney I'm the chairperson of the personnel board personnel board is comprised of some large members and some union members people nominated by the locals and we are sort of the outside grievance appeal in the city have not been able to reach some sort of resolution then we get a shot at it fortunately for the city and I will give the city a lot of credit we don't hear a whole lot of appeals most of it is taken care of before it ever comes near us so we're grateful for that and we are it has been a good experience for me because this every commission not every commission every hearing we've had every resolution has been unanimous we've got people from at large and unions and we've been able to come up with one decision and we are one of the few five member boards so we are appointed by the city council at large and I don't know what the openings are we are appointed for terms so I'm not sure what our status is now thank you very much that completes our actual board representatives and just to let you know I've had them here since noon we had our monthly meeting maybe we needed to skip out to get back to their regular lives and jobs so please excuse them those who can stay will stay so at this point I'm going to ask a staff to go ahead and come down in order that you're listed on the agenda go ahead and conduct your own introductions and also make sure you manage questions for your specific commission as well good afternoon everyone I'm Rachel Eid I'm one of the staff people for the bicycle and pedestrian advisory board a little bit more about BPAP it's a nine member board it's made up of seven members appointed by the individual city council members as well as two at large members one representing the senior community and one representing the disabled community the BPAP that's what we call it BPAP works with TPW staff transportation and public work staff to identify projects and establish priorities for implementation of projects making bicycle and pedestrian improvements one of the major efforts is the periodic update of the bicycle and pedestrian master plan it's a huge effort I began to staff the board after the most recent update so I haven't been through it myself but it's a very important policy document that lays out the intentions and the policies for further development of bicycle and pedestrian facilities in the city and there are a number of other items that come before BPAP for example Beth mentioned grant applications funds to build facilities and BPAP has input as to what projects from the bicycle and pedestrian master plan move forward into those grant applications other examples of items that might come before the board that fall a little bit outside of the stated scope but staff might bring a recent one is a bicycle route signing project and route numbering project where the transportation and public work staff really wanted the input from the books and the bicycle and community about the best design for that project the board meets every other month it's a really great group of people I really enjoyed staffing it and I would encourage anyone who's interested to talk to me more about it am I taking questions now or just okay does anyone have any questions right now okay alright we'll all be here after and feel free to come up and talk to me later after this meeting I'm Rachel lead I'm in the transit division thanks very much I am Kelly Magnuson from the Recreation and Parks department standing in for Mark Richardson our department head today this is the fund department Recreation and Parks and it's a really fun board to serve on there's seven members that meet the fourth Wednesday of each month at the Finlay Community Center the meeting is at 4pm and sometimes they have a study session meeting it's two weeks into the month but that's as needed that's not every month the meetings usually go by pretty quickly usually done by 5.30 or 6 the board I'm going to redo the mission statement because it kind of explains it better the board of community services advises the city council on matters relating to the community services within the city with emphasis on recreational cultural policies facilities and programs so that's encompassing 65 parks the Bennett Valley golf course four community centers that includes our new person senior wing at the Finlay Community Center the deterg round barn all the facilities two swimming pools so a lot of issues come before the board regarding the need for more facilities we get a lot of neighbors coming into the meetings to talk about the park needs in their neighborhoods and dog park issues so a lot of diversity on our board they get to deal with a lot of fun events cultural events that are coming into the city so I think that's all I have unless there's any questions specifically to our board I have handouts so I'll leave those up here for those that are interested to pick up later thank you before you come up Miles Dick has just arrived someone asked Dick to come down introduce himself from the Board of Public Utilities very briefly in a minute share his experience on that board which has been a long, long, long time thank you Mr. Mayor I'm Dick Dowd I'm the chair of the Board of Public Utilities and I first joined the board in 1994 and I don't think I had much gray here then I think it's derived from the activities there and I have been its chair for the last 16 years it's a challenge it's I would say a long-term commitment because it takes a long time to get infrastructure decisions in place and things built the geysers pipeline was our first really, really large achievement when I went on to the board that was an EIR that cost about 25 million dollars and it resulted in a pipeline that cost about 225 million dollars it went operational in 2003 and has worked pretty flawlessly except for a couple of minor contractor involved digups of this pipeline failing to call underground service alert but other than that has worked flawlessly I have often said that the construction of that pipeline was accidental genius on behalf of the board of public utilities in the city of Santa Rosa something that the city of Santa Rosa city council because it has worked so flawlessly and the decision was made to go there prior to much talk about global warming and greenhouse gas reductions and yet it's been a wonderful wonderful achievement in that arena and it's stabilized the steam field a lot of pluses and I'm very, very proud that the city stepped up along with its regional partners and put that in place it is a long-term commitment but would love to have those of you who are interested talk to me or the mayor or director Ferris about the pipeline, thanks I'm Miles Ferris I'm the director of utilities and for the board of public utilities it's probably one of the more unique boards our total budget runs about $20 million a year bigger than the general fund it gives you any idea of the scope of what we have to do as Dick mentioned we have sub-regional partners we treat sewage for the water and with the geysers project with our irrigation projects we're now recycled 98% of the water we receive which is a pretty phenomenal thing and the reason I bring these things up I tell you how many hundred miles of pipe we have and how many roads we have 41 miles of roads we maintain things like that that you don't really think of but the reason I bring it up is when we build money like this the board spends a great deal of time in committee work on how big should our reserves be is that an appropriate expenditure should we do this should we do that and there's a lot of groundwork that goes on behind closed doors that goes on and on and on until the committees decide on something our committees by the way are open to the Brown Act they're not really closed all our committees are Brown Act committees but the deal with it is that there's just a ton of work that needs to be done and seven members to do it and so it is not unlikely to see Dick in my in my operation three, four, five times a week at a committee or making some kind of a presentation so this is a very active involved board that spends a lot of time and the expertise and money, the expertise and you know everybody who comes on board wants to know what all our terms are and in my goodness we have terms of you know acronyms that won't quit but that should not scare you what should scare you is with time you'll understand and develop ability to make some really sound decisions and when Dick talked about the Geysers project we also have a major rehabilitation program underway for our continuous program hopefully for our water and sewer we also do stormwater so it's one of those really gigantic, exciting but hard working boards and I can tell you the members of the board are very excited because for the last 27 years I've doubled their salary every year and they still have zero so I really do think people that want to even think about joining one of these boards because the work is hard but I think when you're done you'll see some results and your community is better off for it and again I'll be happy to answer any questions on the scope and extent of what we do so thumbnail, hope that was enticing and not put down those. All right hello my name is George I'm the community engagement coordinator and one of the staff liaison for the community advisory board and we are also sort of a unique group, it's a board of 14 and 7 are specific to where, are appointed depending on where they live in town so we have 7 community advisory board districts and then recently changed so we also have 7 at large positions and the important part here for members is that you really have an investment in community in Santa Rosa and building strong neighborhoods and supporting our neighborhood associations and civic organizations and that we be sort of that liaison for concerns that they may have to helping them find solutions within the city structure so although we meet once a month that's really kind of a starting point for us, a lot of the work is done out in the community and it's different depending on the needs of the neighborhood you may be supporting them starting a neighborhood watch in others it could be earthquake preparedness in others they have a lot of code enforcement issues that they're passionate about it's really following the lead of the neighborhood and we also give input they're an advisory capacity to the council so their goal is also to give input to the council on how to better include the public in the public engagement process and how to get more participation from the community so they work really well with the community engagement program we're really partners in what we do they come to a lot of the events that we hold as well and it's a lot of fun we are in need of more people I heard Bobby say she was going to be without a spot for the first time in 10 years we will take you so really just looking for people who are passionate about Santa Rosa who love being a member of this community any questions about the community development in the building division and this is about the board of building regulations appeal unlike most boards our job as staff is to make sure the board has as little to do as possible because what they do is they hear appeals on interpretations made by the building official and something related to building construction whether it be a building code, zoning code code enforcement action plumbing, electrical, mechanical and so the board meets twice a year and may meet at other times if there's an appeal filed and they need to act on that generally the board members are intended to be people that have knowledge and expertise in construction related aspects whether it be architects contractors electrical, plumbing electrical contractors even civil engineers can be on the board structural engineers and the normal meetings are in January and July and they usually last about an hour and during the year there may be an update meeting if any codes are coming into effect to keep the board advised of it but primarily it meets only when there's appeals filed and hopefully staff has kept the appeals down to a minimum we don't stop when we just try to do our job so there's no reason to have an appeal thank you I'm Claire Hartman supervising planner with community development and I'm the staff liaison to the planning commission and so the planning commission we meet in this on the second Thursday of the month sometimes if we need to meet twice a month it will be the fourth day planning commission focuses on land use decisions and zoning so we cover things such as density or if it's a commercial project intensity land use compatibility fit within context neighborhood relations we also look at the appropriateness of zoning for general plan designations and the commission acts as a recommendation authority and advises the city council and those types of questions the types of entitlements or actions that the commission covers are things like conditional use permits variances subdivisions that we haven't done a lot of those in a few years we have acted on conditional use permits the commission is the final review authority for those types for zoning and general plan it's a recommendation to the city council some of the examples of projects that the commission has reviewed in 2012 was very productive wasn't a lot of development review but we did a lot of zoning work might have heard about our economic development re-zoning projects there was 13 and they pretty much took most of our time with the commission throughout this year a little bit from last year and those included re-zoning of specific sites that had outdated plan developments to more conforming zoning districts to expedite reoccupancies we also looked at growth opportunities through zoning industries such as wine tasting medical services and grocery stores in addition to those types of activities the planning commission also looked at climate action plan and the north station area specific plan so they do a lot of work for the city it's a lot of reading and there's also you can almost always bet on a lot of neighborhood participation so it's not unusual for these chambers to be full and to have quite a big blinder to get through for your meeting but as Chair Siscoe has been at the helm for some time she can contest it's very exciting work and it's very fun and very rewarding so we get to do a lot of good work I also want to speak any questions about planning commission I was going to speak also on cultural heritage board cultural heritage board this is in addition this is also an advisory board to the city council they meet in room 7 which is across the courtyard here they meet about once a month again if there's additional items we could meet twice a month but for the last couple of years we've been meeting once per month it's the first Wednesday of every month and as Chair Flock has already they do a lot of preservation they do a lot of work on a regular basis for homeowners who live in our eight historic preservation districts whether it's remodels or new single family homes in fact in the last year they reviewed new single family house in the Ridgway as well as in the McDonnell district and some major remodels in the Cherry Street neighborhood it's a very detail oriented board it's very interesting all the different techniques and implications of making changes to historic structures and not just the structure but looking at it in context of the entire district it's a fun board and like Chair Flock has said it's real team oriented they do a lot of good work together those meetings are a little earlier than the planning commissions they meet sorry at 2.30 in the afternoon that's all I have for those two any questions about cultural heritage board good afternoon I'm Bill Rose I'm a senior planner in the community development department I'll be speaking to you about the design review board Lisa Kranz is our supervising planner that is staff liaison to the waterways advisory committee she couldn't make it so I will discuss that committee with you as well the design review board a board that reviews designs it's a seven member advisory board to the city council it acts on issues involving the design quality of the built environment specifically related to site planning, architecture and landscaping it's currently made up of people from several different professions we have architects, engineers landscape architects city planner on the board the meetings are very informative I would say that I think every meeting I walk away personally and learn something about all these different disciplines it is the review authority on design review applications it makes recommendations to the city council on the city's design guidelines this board also does environmental review can range anywhere from simple exemptions all the way could do an environmental impact report although that is fairly rare the tools that the design utilizes are the general plans specific plans, the zoning ordinance the design guidelines the creek master plan the orientation is always kind of interesting because the stack of documents is somewhat intimidating but I think the staff does a very good job of helping the board implement those and utilize those tools the board meets in conference room seven that's a small conference room it's a fairly informal setting and I think it lends well to discussions between staff, the board the applicants, the architects and the designers currently the board meets once a month that's kind of due to the reduction in applications that we've received in the downturn in the economy typically we meet twice a month though they start at 2 p.m. the meetings and they vary depending on the size of the agenda but sometimes they will go as late as 6 o'clock and some recent projects that you may have heard of that the board reviewed is the target at Codding Town the Santa Rosa Plaza upgrades and the range ranch project that's a 270 unit residential project so before I move on to the waterways committee does anybody have any questions on the design of your board so the waterways committee is a nine member committee again it's advisory to the city council the planning commission to staff also to the designer view board the make up includes four at large citizen appointments two city council members representative from the planning commission the designer view board and the board of community services it's a referral body as Steve mentioned it reviews public and private improvement projects that are near or related to creeks and waterways responsibilities to analyze these projects for consistency with the general plan and the creek master plan this board meets quarterly and it's on the fourth thursday of the month again in room seven so with the cross section of members and the room the discussions are very informative the meetings typically last between one and two hours and I pulled up some recent agendas to give you an idea of some of the projects that the board or the committee has reviewed recently next year the city will be updating the citywide creek master plan so the work plan for that was recently presented to the committee so they could get an idea of what staff will be working on the board committee also took a tour recently of the Pearson reach along the prince memorial greenway to see some upgrades that are proposed for that so any questions on the waterways advisory committee everyone I'm Dave guine the director of economic development and housing talking to you today about the housing part the housing authority it's a seven member board it's one of the unique boards in the city where the seven members are selected by the full council rather than by individual appointment and but as Emilio said earlier two of those members are tenant commissioners the recipients of our section eight renters assistance program we meet the third monday of each month and the business side of the shop is basically two main things the section eight program this is a federally funded subsidy program to help folks pay their rent it helps 1400 households here in Santa Rosa we generate about 1.2 million dollars a month in rental payments so it's a pretty much an enterprise machine going that way and the other policies this board reviews is our housing trust and this is a ball of money from federal state and local resources that we try to generate new affordable units for people to live here in Santa Rosa so we'll work with anyone from say Habitat for Humanity or a family that wants to rehab their house or we might be administrating a loan program from HUD to help people with down payment assistance all the way to multi-million-dollar loans to groups like Burbank Housing or Bridge Housing to generate multi-family apartments it's a lot of fun, it's a lot of financing if you think of the housing authority trust as a small credit union we have over a hundred million dollars of loan assets we have over 500 contracts we manage and 4,000 units in our portfolio and so it's not only just originating new loans and helping new families into housing but it's also refinancing old loans or keeping those projects affordable for a further length of time by new money so that's the business side of the shop but if you're interested in really just sort of making sure that people have a decent safe and sanitary place to live and you like a community that has a diversity of income groups and housing types it might be a board that you might consider applying for because we really do try to help people live not just in housing units but in their homes so, Emilio and I can take your questions afterwards thanks Hi, I'm Alan Alton I'm the Administrative Services Officer for the Finance Department and the staff is on for the Mejero Citizen Oversight Committee the committee is a seven member oversight committee that has the mission to ensure that the tax revenues and the expenditures that come from those revenues are spent appropriately based on the permissible uses that are in the Mejero ordinance the committee meets regularly twice a year once generally around May to review the upcoming budget and then the larger meeting or more intense, not intense but more involved meeting in late September to review the past years expenditures and at that time they also approve a report that the committee sends to the city council so the committee works with staff to develop an annual report of the programs accomplishments for both gang police and fire programs and and then we present it to council in fact we're actually doing that on December 4th the chair will generally give comments and staff members will also talk about their various programs and there's not really any special skills for the people there there are a lot of facts and figures in fact Bonnie is actually a CPA but generally if you have a general understanding of police fire and gang prevention you fit right in and available for any questions if you have good afternoon everyone I'm Fran Elm I'm the human resources director here at the city and I also serve as a secretary to the personnel board and as you heard Alex say earlier the personnel board is a five member board all members serve a four year term and all members are appointed by the council we do have three at large members and we have two seats that are designated as labor seats comes available what the city does is we go out to our employee organizations and we ask for recommendations of names of individuals who'd be interested in serving on the personnel board and the council then interviews those individuals and makes an appointment and when an at large seat is available the city manager's office would advertise for that seat and then the council interviews those applicants that also makes that assignment all our board members are currently serving if somewhere within their four year term our first opening if all our board members remain on the board will be in December of 2013 and the primary purpose of our personnel board is they really are here they hear and render decisions regarding disputes at the city that are concerning appeals of grievances or disciplinary actions they meet on an as needed basis and as you heard Alex mention we don't have too many appeal meetings we do meet periodically to discuss other city business and also for the board to learn more about city operations and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have good afternoon everyone I'm Terry Griffin and I'm the city clerk and I am in the city manager's office and that's the office that's responsible for managing the recruitment and application process for boards and commissions and so I'll just give a brief overview of what that process looks like the first thing is all applicants whether you're appointed by the full council or appointed by an individual council member the application we have copies of the applications up on the table by the door we have them available on our website and one new addition to our application this year is a demographic survey our city charter requires us to issue an annual report to the council whether we are tracking geographic and ethnic diversity so we have included this survey for that purpose it's voluntary and so if you would like to complete it that would be helpful very helpful to us in meeting that requirement of the charter as I mentioned there are two ways that board and commission members are appointed currently we have about 46 vacancies or pending vacancies at the end of the year of those 40 are appointed by individual council members and another six are appointed by the full council the process varies a little bit depending on whether you're appointed by an individual council member of the full council if you're interested in submitting an application we would love to get those by the 20th of December that will give us an opportunity to distribute them to the full council they can have an opportunity to review them over the holidays before they come back in January and start making their appointments once the appointing council members made a selection the clerk's office and then the clerk's office notifies the applicant as well as the staff that support that board or commission we also provide written notice to the full council during the month of January as to all the appointments that have been made by individual council members if there's a vacancy that's appointed by the full council that actually entails an interview process so we will take the applications we've received for that particular board or commission and we will do the formal interviews that coincide with the council meeting day the council will conduct those interviews before their regular session and then during the regular session they'll go through a voting process where they select an appointed person those who are appointed to terms that expire the end of this year will assume office on February 1st that allows for an easier transition between incumbents and new members being appointed so those people that are currently in positions that expire December will continue to serve the month of January and of course they are eligible for re-apply and be reappointed as new appointments as well we will provide an orientation to all new board commission members in February the city attorney Caroline Fowler will go over various legal issues such as the Brown Act which is California's open meeting law conflicts of interest under the political format and public records act issues and then after those issues are discussed and information is provided each of the new board and commission members will meet with their individual staff that support that board and commission and get a more specialized orientation about that board or commission I wanted to also mention some board and commission members are designated in the city's conflict of interest code and what that means is those members are required to file statements of economic disclosure within 30 days of assuming office and then annually thereafter and all board and commission members are required to take what we call AB 1234 training which is ethics training that training must be completed within 12 months of appointment we will offer a session here at city hall that's interactive but the fair political practices commission also offers excellent online training that you can do on your own time so that's all I have about the process are there any questions about that okay well I think that's it I really want to thank everybody for coming thank you to all of the chairs and board members for coming appreciate your time thank you to staff if you have any further questions I guess there's information up on the table my card is there if you have questions about the process feel free to give me a call and we also have a lot of information on the city's website so thank you